By Paul Nicholson
May 11 – Manchester City has taken a deep media step into the opportunities of Virtual Reality with a test of last weekend’s game against Arsenal that was broadcast to a select group of fans in London, New York and Melbourne.
May 11 – Premier League Watford has agreed a three-season sponsorship with Divisa Capital who will become the club’s new Official Foreign Exchange Partner. No fugure was announced for the deal.
By Mark Baber
May 10 – Schalke 04 and Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom have agreed to an extension of their shirt sponsorship deal, which had been due to expire in 2017, until 30 June 2022 in a deal reported to be worth at least €120 million.
May 9 – Manchester City, who have recently taken on board a $400 million investment from Chinese investors in their City Football Group ownership group, have added two new Chinese partners in advance of their July pre-season trip to the country where they will play Borussia Dortmund and local rivals Manchester United.
By Paul Nicholson
May 9 – Champions League sponsor Nissan has developed an Excitement Index with Loughborough University that found that the average heart rate reached a peak 122 bpm during exciting moments in the match, which is comparable to the peak heart rates found in scientific studies of couples having sex.
By Mark Baber
May 5 – West Bromwich Albion have signed a two year sponsorship deal with Chinese online casino operator the K8 Group which will see the UK-K8.com emblazoned on the club’s new shirt from 2016/17.
May 5 – Scotland’s Celtic, who celebrated a fifth consecutive Scottish Premier League Championship last weekend, have followed this up with the announcement of what they say is the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the history of Scottish football.
By Mark Baber
May 5 – The Premier League’s new ‘clean brand’ strategy took a big step forward as Carling was announced as Official Beer Partner of the Premier League in a new deal which will cover the three seasons from 2016/17 to 2018/19.
By Paul Nicholson
May 4 – Leicester City’s meteoric rise from the Premier League’s relegation zone to championship winners over the past 45 games has seen a similar rise in the club’s social media, propelling it into the big league of social media engagement.
By Mark Baber
April 28 – The board of one of Turkey’s biggest clubs – Galatasaray FC – have terminated their kit sponsorship deal with Dumankaya Construction for seemingly pro-Erdogan government reasons. The company’s owners have been listed as suspected of having provided charitable donations to the moderate Islamic, US-based, Gülen Movement.
By Matt Scott
April 27 – The most unusual Premier League season in the competition’s 23-year history has made the commercial messaging markedly easier for executives selling sponsorship inventory around the world’s most popular domestic football competition.
By Matt Scott
April 27 – Tag Heuer has become the Premier League’s Official Timekeeper in a three-year deal announced simultaneously in London and Hong Kong. No official value for the deal was released but one estimate reckons it to be worth £7.3 million per season.
April 27 – German club SC Freiburg who currently lead 2. Bundesliga will have a new main and short sponsor next season, whether they make it to the top flight or not.
By Mark Baber
April 26 – Whilst on the pitch, FC Bayern are within sight of a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble, off the pitch the club have signed a new partnership with American multi-national consumer goods company Procter and Gamble.
By Samindra Kunti
April 25 – One of the longest running shirt sponsorships in European football comes to an end this summer when for the first time in 33 years Philips won’t be the brand on PSV Eindhoven’s shirt. Philips’ sponsorship will be replaced by Energiedirect in a three-year deal worth €18 million.